We have finished all our classes and are starting finals. I simply can’t believe it’s almost over L. On Monday we had the morning free to work on our internships and then we had Spanish from 2:30-6.
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| Libba teaching the 5th and 6th graders about solar light tubes |
On Tuesday, while everyone was discussing the differences between the Yorkin and El Castillo in terms of capital and assets, Libba and I went to Friends School to teach about our solar products. In the morning, Libba taught the 5th and 6th graders about solar light tubes, and each student had the opportunity to make their own light tube models using cardboard and plastic bottles. It was a beautiful sunny day, so after making the light tubes we went outside to test them using Libba’s observation box. After class we went back to lunch and a SEES lecture about Coffee in Costa Rica. After the lecture we returned to Friends School to teach the 7th and 8th graders about solar space heaters. I explained the components of the solar space heater I had crated, the function of it, and the basic concepts behind it. Then the class did an activity in which they designed their own solar space heater using recycled aluminum cans and PVC tubes. It was super rewarding teaching students about the solar systems we had created and seeing them get excited about solar energy.
After teaching we had Spanish from 3-6. During Spanish we took our last quiz on La Loca de Gandoca and played bananagrams in Spanish.
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| Spanish class on the last day |
On Wednesday we had our last 3 TCB lectures/classes. The first two lectures were on Protected and unprotected areas and Climate Change, respectively, and then we had an informal discussion during which we reviewed the mini ungraded quiz we took during our first class to see our progress and discussed the class as a whole. After TCB we went to CPI for our last Spanish class. It was a really fun class. We reviewed the topics that will be on the final exam and then we went to Sabores, a really delicious café down the street to get some treats.
Thursday was our last day of SEES. We had a few lectures in the morning about tourism and then went to talk to a representative of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve about how they manage tourism. We then interviewed a woman named Mary Rockwell, who was one of the first Quakers to come to Monteverde in the 1950s. She was 18 when she came, so she has seen the community transition from a quaint little closed community to one dominated by tourism and development. It was really interesting hearing her recount her experiences and share her perspective on tourism in the area.
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| The view here is incredible! |
On Friday we went to a tree farm to measure some trees that had been planted by some program. Then we had a lab where we calculated our carbon footprint from our field trips and our plane rides to and from Costa Rica. We did a mock planning exercise where we calculated the carbon sequestration of a variety of different trees and then determined which trees we would pant and where based on a variety of factors such as the carbon sequestration of each tree species, proximity to rivers and intact forests, land tenure of the different plots, life zones, etc.
I spent most of the day Saturday at the study center finishing up some last-minute internship stuff. Then from 4-7 we had an informal open-house type of thing where people from the community came to see our projects. After that we went out to the baah and met some of the students from the CIEE Biology program, which was fun!
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| The sunsets have been unreal! |
I spent all day Sunday studying for finals and took a break only to eat and take a run.
Yesterday, Monday we spent the day studying and then had our Spanish finals. The Spanish final was way easier than I expected it to be, which was really nice. This morning I woke up at 6 and took a run, which was a great way to start my day. We have a review session at 10 and then the rest of the day to study for our TCB final tomorrow and write our internship reports.
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